Homemade Jerky

[Dinsdale45]

I was thinking of making some jerky with different meats and flavorings. I have a Mr. Coffee dehydrator that I use to dry chile peppers. My question is, does the relatively low heat provided by the dehydrator cook the meat in the drying process or should you cook the meat in a conventional oven before drying it?

Thanks

[sweetie]

I have a Ronco food dehydrator. I put the meat in raw and it takes 1-3 days.

[rld]

I use the Alton Brown method from Good Eats episode 'Urban Preservation II'

goodeatsfanpage.com/Season9/EA0901.htm

All you need is a box fan, furnace filters and some bungee cords. Temps stay nice and low. It's easy to setup and I always get good results.

[hi standards]

Don't cook the meat before jerking or you will negate the entire process. A slow dehydrator should work really well. I don't know anything about the Mr. Coffee, but I use my fruit and vegetable dehydrator for beef, turkey and salmon jerky. Just make sure your meat is sliced as thin as the butcher can get it, then as a poster below said, soak it in your marinade for a day in the fridge. It takes 6-12 hours to dry depending upon the heat of your dryer. Remove the meat when it's still slightly pliant because as it cools down, it will stiffen up. I know I don't have to, but I let it cool completely, then store in a ziplock bag in the fridge just to be on the safe side. Do you have a good recipe?

[Glencora]

Salmon jerky sounds great. Could you tell a little more about it? What kind of salmon do you use? What kind of marinade? Do you slice it yourself?

[hi standards]

Salmon jerky, my kids call it salmon candy - I make a maple salmon jerky. I can give an approximate recipe. I use wild salmon - I buy a half a salmon or a whole cleaned and de-boned salmon depending upon prices. Then with my sharpest knife, I slice the meat kind of diagonally, removing any pieces of skin, into about 1/4 inch slices - if you slice it too thin, it will fall apart when you pull it off the dryer. For the marinade, I use up to 2 cups maple syrup, 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce, one half cup white or dark balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon black pepper and 1 tablespoon salt. Whisk everything together and then dump in the sliced salmon and let marinate overnight. Put on the dryer the next day and it dehydrates really fast - I usually can start removing pieces within 4-6 hours. Then I store in a zip lock bag in the fridge. We eat it all within a day or two. If you want a not-sweet recipe, let me know.

[Glencora]

Thanks that sounds good. Slicing the salmon sounds a bit tricky (my knife skills aren't great) but I'll give it a try.

[hi standards]

Ha! Ha! My husband barely allows me around knives! I've been around and in the food business all my life and I still cut myself constantly! I've had a couple finger tips put back on. So do what I do, slice real slow and actually pay attention. I am too easily distracted.

[MMRuth]

I wonder if having a proper smoked salmon knife might helped - it's helped with slicing grav lax.

[Dinsdale45]

I have no recipe, just some ideas. I concoct a lot of marinades for grilling meats on the fly and they usually turn out pretty well. I think adding acid (e.g., lime juice) in the marinade should "cook" the meat a little (like making ceviche) before dehydrating.

[Den]

I don't know anything about how the Mr. Coffee dehydrator works but we make jerky all the time using a 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator. Other than slicing the meat, the whole process is pretty simple. After slicing the meat we take it and thouroughly mix it with the jerky cure and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Then, the raw meat gets laid out in the dehydrator for about another day until it's done. No other cooking is required. The dehydrator is just a low temp cooker. Try the jerky cures from Cabella's, they're awesome.

[davebough]

You can make jerky in a food dehydrator. I make mine in the oven at about 200-225 with the door cracked open. Cooks/drys it in an hour or two. It would take a lot longer in a dehydrator.
dave

[Den]

It's probably just personal preference but I prefer the testure of the jerky from the slow dehydrator process. Besides, we make 15 lbs at a time which is difficult to handle in the oven.